Post-Soviet restructuring

Serikbolsyn Abdildin, party leader from 1991 to 2010

The 18th Congress of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan took a decision to rename the Communist Party as the Socialist Party and split from CPSU. Nursultan Nazarbayev, the party chairman, resigned when he became the first President of Kazakhstan in 1991. Dissatisfied members of the old Communist Party recreated the Communist Party of Kazakhstan in October 1991 at the 19th Congress of the party. CPK was officially registered on August 27, 1998. Communist Party of Kazakhstan has a well-established party structure with offices in all of the oblasts. CPK is estimated to have around 70 thousand members.[2] CPK largely appeals to above-middle age segment of the population especially in Urban areas who have a strong nostalgia for Soviet times. The leader of CPK has been by Serikbolsyn Abdildin, a respected, old generation politician in Kazakhstan.

In the mid-1990s CPK participated in opposition coalition movements "Azamat" and "Pokolenie" ("Generation"). In 1996, CPK initiated unregistered "National-Patriotic Movement-Republic". In February 1998, it joined the opposition bloc "People’s Front of Kazakhstan".[3]

The party split at the start of 2004, when a group led Vladislav Kosarev started accusing party First Secretary Serikbolsyn Abdildin of accepting money from questionable sources. The splinter party, the Communist People's Party of Kazakhstan, has failed to meet 50,000 membership requirement to be officially registered.